Tuesday, 8 November 2011

Orca (film review)

Beautiful – Outstanding – Underrated?

My girlfriend put those dialogues of words together after she saw it again for the first time in years.

Orca It’s no doubt made on the long string of films riding off on Jaws (my favourite being Grizzly), Orca tends to have more Elements that Children can relate too… And not to forget its Stunning Soundtrack and theme music Dialogue of Memories. It’s indeed Underrated, Love it or Hate it there is many overlooked quality’s.

The fisherman and owner of a fishing vessel, Captain Nolan, becomes aware of the economical value of an orca whale alive through the lecture of the biologist Rachel Bedford and decides to capture one to pay the mortgage of his ship. However, the operation fails and he kills a pregnant female whale and its offspring. The male mate orca seeks revenge against Captain Nolan and his crew, jeopardizing the fishing community of the coastal town.

Look it’s a love it or you hate it story, It does in my own opinion it feel like a rushed Job like the Italians creating any rip-off. Maybe I just needed to grow up watching it too feel what others felt when they where young. Regardless I liked the ending even though some won’t…

To me the acting sort of felt wooden at times, Besides Richard Harrison great performance it’s feels average at most during some of the monologue scenes. No Oscar winning acting but it could have been better and more well… Emotional. I liked the direction – It kind of feels like a horror film throw the spooky night times atmosphere and Ennio Morricone soundtrack playing over the background. Overall I can’t complain.

The Music? Is nothing short of a Godsend, Ennio Morricone preformed it perfectly… I have seriously in my life time never heard something more Beautiful than A Dialogue of Memories in the opening scene. The Special Effects are decent animatronics whales for their time but still hold up extremely well today.

Here are some facts I found

The killer whale was portrayed by a combination of stock footage taken at Marine World in Redwood City, California, and an animatronics whale which was filmed off the coasts of Malta and Newfoundland.

In the mid-80s, Dino De Laurentiis considered a sequel to King Kong that would have had him going head-to-head with an Orca.

The orcas seen in the stock footage used from Marine World were named Yaka (female) and Nepo (male). They were both captured in 1969. Nepo died in 1980, and Yaka died in 1997.

Animal rights activists blocked trucks that were delivering the animatronic whales to the set, thinking there were real whales in them.

Despite being a Minor Hit in America, Became an all time record breaker in Japan. Also their the film was used as a campaign to promote Environmental Safty About Fishing.

Again you like or you hate it… Everyone has Opinions. Orca is good but I do see the line between Jaws and This…

4 comments:

It isn't a battle (with the blogawards). It's only for fun. You give someone a blogaward, because you like the blog. :3 Thank you! You really like my drawings, don't you? ^_^ I want to become a great mangaka. :D

I have vague memories of this movie. My sister had rented it long ago because just like the rest of the target audience, she had recently climbed aboard the Jaws bandwagon.

The plot sounds similar to Jaws: The Revenge but with a little more depth. It would be a little ironic to learn that the Jaws franchise borrowed ideas from another franchise that borrowed from them first.

In the mid-80s, Dino De Laurentiis considered a sequel to King Kong that would have had him going head-to-head with an Orca.